Sheffield Steelers goalie out for rest of season

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Published:06:00Friday 17 January 2014

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Geoff Woolhouse has been dealt a sickening second injury blow and is out for the rest of the season - but is buoyed by the feeling his Steelers team will lift silverware.

Sheffield’s second string goalie, out all season with an ankle problem, was days away from being available for selection when he hurt himself performing a ‘butterfly’ save in training.

Geoff Woolhouse - Sheffield Steelers

“My season never got going, the initial injury happened earlier pre-season in Slovakia. It is a big kicker as I’ve spent four months re-habbing” he said.

“Everything was pointed in the right direction. I was a week away from selection and without warning it just went. There’d been no tell-tale signs to ease up.”

Woolhouse stretched a ligament which forced his tibia and fibia apart, re-tearing a membrane. Surgery is needed to secure the bones.

He knows that could damage his marketability at the end of the year.

“With the way hockey works with one year contracts, it’s going to affect next year” he said. “AlI can say is that I didn’t come into pre-season unfit, all my results from testing were high. My cardio vascular was one of the top in the team. My balance work by the doctor was extremely high and my body fat extremely low. I couldn’t have done more before the injury. But it is not ideal to be out for an entire year, especially for a goaltender.”

A home win over league leaders Belfast Giants tomorrow will be a morale booster for him and his team-mates, though. “Belfast haven’t had a blip all season, it is very rare that a team will go through the entire duration without one” he said. “But that is out of our hands.

“All we can do is win all our games against them and continue our progress. If we win our three games against them over the next few weeks, that brings their lead over us down to nine points and all of a sudden it isn’t so daunting. Also we could claw back more points from games in hand.”